Air & Ocean

Flight Ban Lifted

The Revol-Ocean is at hand

Images by KLV

Pattern

Painting the face is an ancient form of body adornment. The oldest example still practising their form of body painting are the peoples of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, though of course it is a world wide cultural institution. All patterns imaginable, often but not always, with highly intricate symbolism denoting rank, status or reflection of inner characteristic. The art of guise meets its very roots at the application of the earth to the face but of course a vast evolution has taken place throughout all peoples, including the permanent body paint that is the tattoo. More in depth posts will follow shortly.

Through no particular inspiration I applied a spontaneous design to my face before my roast dinner with Katie and Dan. A small photoshoot followed:

Images by Daniel & Katie Churchill. Collage by KLV

Drax

Collage by Jesse Draxler

Ancestors

My first hat/headdress/mask collection:

Mesozoic

This mask/headband was one of the first ideas of the collection, in fact it sparked off the idea for collections name of 'Ancestors'. Mesozoic is the era that encompasses the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods where Dinosaurs existed.

Pounce

This hat was to make the link between the Dinosaur design and those that are bird or feather based. The name inspiration is obvious, even more so when worn as the lizard is very animated.

Majesty

 Inspired by the diverse range of headdresses from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in particular those of  the Yaka and Pende people as well as the Bwami society of the Lega. The name signifies the importance of head wear as a representation of power.

Ara

Ara is the genera of parrot that the scarlet macaw belongs to, the same species that these feathers belonged to. Using them in head wear is reminiscent of South American styles where the macaws are naturally found.

Trove 

As the name suggests this is intended to be a a treasure pile of kinds but also a nest. Much like the magpie or the bower bird who collect coloured/shiny objects to adorn their nests/bowers.

Wildnernis

The German and Dutch variation of the world 'wilderness'. This piece is a combination of British and European birds and butterflies, combined with the famous Mohawk hairstyle which has been in existence from around 392 B.C. to 201 B.C. with a mummified corpse discovered in Ireland to back this up.

Pelt

The first of two masks, Pelt highlights the habit of animal print being associated with African mammals (except Tigers). There are also links here to the DR Congolese headdresses and their use of animal skin or parts. 

Era

 A collage of fossilised creatures with the name 'Era' being self explanatory.

Skulk

Apart from sounding extremely similar to skull, the most prominent material used, 'Skulk' is also the term for a group of foxes which the skull happens to belong to. I found, cleaned and treated it myself then wore it to the private view of Open Close pop up exhibition I shall blog about shortly. It's the only hat to feature a mammal part.

Slumber

 The second piece that deals directly with dead animal, 'Slumber' of course means sleep which is what some consider death. The way in which the sparrow is preserved allows it to sleep amongst the feathers of others. The sparrow itself was a present from when I left Southampton.

Images and Headwear by KLV

ASD

My recent contributions to Illustration blog Art School Disco

 

• Name: In the 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into a Swimming Fish and Ate the Head of His Enemy By Magic
• Theme: Epic/legendary songs 
• Inspiration: Kasai Allstars (Congolese 25 piece super-band), metamorphosis

• Name: Tree a Plant 
• Theme: New Years Resolutions
• Inspiration: Reversal of plant a tree resolution, green energy, lower carbon footprints

•  Name: Happy New Year Katie
• Theme: Secret Santa
• Inspiration: Yvette Yang fashion typefaces, cats

 Images by KLV

Of Hair and Mirror

The following images are the result of playing around with my webcam whilst wearing my various headdress creations, though the only effect worth experimenting with in this way was the mirror image. The low quality images do actually depict interesting shapes and possible ideas considering future headdresses as well as breathing new form into the pieces!

On a different note, though still relevant to the head, I had a friend over at the weekend for dinner and seeing as I quite like ruining people's hair I decided to create a few masterpieces.. Honestly though I was quite happy with how the styles looked, especially the hair turban. It was fun!

 Goodnight!

Images by KLV

Night Parade of One Hundred Demons

This collage was created for the newly founded Art School Disco blog to which I've recently been invited to. '6 Brit illustrators tackle a new theme every week ~ Ben Phe, Simon Abbott, Ed Brown, Johnny Ace, Katie Allen & KLV', so don't forget to check for updates on the Art School Disco twitter too. This weeks theme was 'Devil', as well as colour coded, so here is my collage which is made from dissected images of Japanese Bugaku and Gyodo masks.

Image by KLV

Kakapo & Kagu

Here are two more collages made today, coincidentally both flightless birds beginning with K! The Kagu or 'Ghost of the Forest' is the only existing species in its family with no strong links to other bird families, making it a very unique creature indeed. Coming from New Caledonia it is very much at risk from introduced species and deforestation, this has resulted in its endangered status. The Kakapo suffers similar issues as it evolved in New Zealand where natural predators and food abundance eradicated the need for flight, however Europeans brought an array of predators with them causing the world's only flightless parrot to become critically endangered.

Images by KLV

Swan & Finch

After buying a brilliant bird book in a charity shop I've now decided to put it to use, in my usual manner of course. Though I've collaged various animals together onto human bodies before, the idea this time is to focus on birds and to form high fashion looks with the qualities of particular species or families so that the collages embody the shape, colour and texture of the creatures. Swan and Finch are what I have so far.. 

Images by KLV

The Tide of Fabric

I couldn't sleep particularly well last night so decided to get on youtube and listen to some classic trip hop (Tricky, Portishead, Massive Attack), during this I remembered the band Morcheeba and then came to realise they had actually released new material with the original vocalist. A bit slow maybe but I'm glad I found this out as one of the music videos is quite beautiful, the movement of fabric being key. This hypnotic flow of material was not a one off within the work of director Ian Bonhote as I explored a little further, here are some of the striking moments within the videos.

Images by Ian Bonhote

Hundred Faces

It's been a while but finally another post is here and better yet a post featuring my latest photoshoot with local photography company Obsidian AIC. The headdress used was constructed back in the Spring and I'd never found a use for it until now, so it was particularly pleasant to be there for this woodland shoot. The idea for the headdress came from Mongolian designs and you can see some of the design process in a previous post. The first set of more orange-hued images were taken by me, personally I'd like to think they convey an atmosphere of intrigue and mystery but with the close ups I'm also happy with how the collage blends into the face, distorting and morphing into her own appearance as opposed to simply wearing a mask. The photos by Obsidian project a more dramatic energy and I also believe the darkness of the background accentuates the post apocolyptic atmosphere, aided by the general outfit also.

 Images by KLV (last two by Obsidian AIC)